What's the Deal with Blogs?

- a group submission by Derek Hyland, Roberta Reich, and Nichole Unger -

For all of you extra excited educators, today is your lucky day! We are taking a look at Bloom's Taxonomy and applying, and synthesizing it to our own knowledge!


KNOWLEDGE:

There are many ways that blogs can be used in education, such as:

* a way to collaborate and share content or infomation
* as e-portfolios to demonstrate knowledge in a particular domain
* as a link to internet items that relate to courses
* to organize class discussion and summaries of readings for students


COMPREHENSION:

Why should teachers integrate blogs into their classrooms? There are MANY reasons! Blogs can:

* increase student engagement with learning content
* provide an environment for peer to peer learning through collaboration and knowledge sharing
* provide active learning through personal reflections that can be shared with others


APPLICATION:

How can we use blogs for our own teaching and professional development? Teachers can:

* write about something we have learned from other teachers and share it
* to reflect on teaching experiences and keep a log of what worked for them in the classroom, what didn't work, great ideas, and "AHA!" moments
* Ask questions and engage in discussion with other educators
* Follow blogs devoted to your teaching area


ANALYSIS:

The use of blogs in education has advantages over static websites. Blogs allow more interaction and collaboration through comments. Blogs also allow others to use RSS Readers to stay up to date on the latest postings. A well-maintained blog is also easily updatable, without the need to understand HTML programming code, and let's you change the website quickly and easily.


SYNTHESIS:

How can blogging change our roles as educators? Blogging can make life easier in terms of communication with staff and parents. Classroom shedules and assignments can be posted online and are easily accessible from home. It keeps teachers up to date with the current technology that students will be using, or at least exposed to. Students could also use blogs to upload their assignments and reduce the paper trail in classrooms.


EVALUATION:

Are there any disadvantages to using blogs in education? Blogging can bring up questions of privacy and appropriateness. Blogs could be a channel for cyber-bullying or inappropriate postings. Blogging is limited to access to the technology. Difficulty getting computers, blocked websites, and teacher technological fluency might also limit their use.